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Sex ratio adjustment and maternal condition in two aphid species

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Abstract

We analyzed how offspring sex ratio varies with maternal condition in order to obtain evidence on the population structure in two aphid species with different life cycles. When fitness returns per unit investment differ for the production of daughters and sons, selection will favor an increasing investment into the sex with the higher returns. Therefore, the offspring sex ratios of individual mothers should become more biased towards the sex with the higher fitness returns as their condition or fecundity improves. The pattern of sex ratio adjustment we found in Uroleucon cirsii indicates local mate competition among males, while the pattern we found in Rhopalosiphum padi suggests local resource competition among sexual females. This might be the first evidence for local resource competition among females in an invertebrate species. Local mate competition means that fitness returns are limited by the availability of females as mates within local breeding groups, whereas local resource competition means that fitness returns are limited by the availability of resources for females competing within local groups. We discuss how the life cycles of both species fit to these hypotheses.

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Notes

  1. The current usage of the term local resource competition is ambiguous. As used here or by Clark (1978) and Charnov (1982), local resource competition entails kin competition among related females. This predicts an increasing proportion of sons with improving maternal condition, as does the model by Trivers and Willard (1973). In another usage (for example Silk 1983), however, local resource competition is combined with cooperation among related females as through inheriting social ranks or other forms of kin cooperation. This would predict an increasing proportion of daughters with improving maternal condition, as do models of local mate competition (e.g., Yamaguchi 1985; Stubblefield and Seger 1990). Here, we consider only local resource competition among females without kin cooperation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Claude Rispe, Tony Dixon, Sebastian Domhof, Thomas Hoffmeister, Lars Reimer, and especially Stuart West for helpful comments.

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  1. Institute of Plant Pathology and Protection, University of Göttingen, Grisebachstrasse 6, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Joachim L. Dagg & Stefan Vidal

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  1. Joachim L. Dagg
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  2. Stefan Vidal
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Correspondence to Joachim L. Dagg.

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Communicated by D. Gwynne

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Dagg, J.L., Vidal, S. Sex ratio adjustment and maternal condition in two aphid species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 231–235 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0702-4

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